Word to the Wise
Monday, February 20, 2023 - Monday in the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 1:1-10 and Mark 9:14-29]All wisdom comes from the Lord and with him it remains forever, and is before all time.....Before all else wisdom was created; and prudent understanding from eternity. The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom and her ways are everlasting....It is the Lord; he created her through the Holy Spirit, has seen her and taken note of her. He has poured her forth upon all his works, upon every living thing according to his bounty; he has lavished her upon his friends. [Sirach]
The "wisdom literature" of the Bible is a treasure house of inspiration and is a daily part of the worship of the Church, because it includes the psalms which appear in the response to the first scripture of the day and which form a major part of the Liturgy of the Hours. The Books of Job, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Sirach (the source for today's first scripture) form the "collection." The authors of these books were as diverse as the books and the ancient cultures they lived in but anyone can read these and find God's Word speaking wisdom!
I was once invited to speak about wisdom to a group of third grade students. I was unwise enough to think I was somewhat better informed on the subject. I started by asking, "Who can tell me what wisdom is?" A little boy in the front row piped up, "Knowledge gained from experience!" That took the wind out of my sails and taught me that wisdom is where one finds it, and often in children!
However, we learn in the wisdom literature that wisdom is more than what we learn from practical experience, as valuable as that may be. God's wisdom can seem strange to us, as St. Paul points out in 1 Corinthians: "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. [1 Cor. 1:24-25] St. Paul is pointing to the crucifixion and death of Christ, which, in the eyes of many at the time seemed very "unwise" and shameful!
The wisdom we celebrate as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit comes through faith. But we unite our faith with our daily lives and learn from experience. Daily scientific advances in human knowledge show us how much we still have to learn on a human level, but reflection on God's wisdom in scripture and tradition shows us that human wisdom is but a drop in the bucket of God's wisdom. AMEN